Steakhouses are my favorite kind of restaurant. It's hard to find someone having a bad time inside one. They're among the oldest institutions in every major city, carrying decades—sometimes more than a century—of history along with them. They're also expensive, which means a lot of younger diners love the idea of a steakhouse but aren't always sure where to start or which ones are actually worth saving up for.
There's something magical about pushing open a heavy door into a dark, cozy dining room to order dishes you'd never bother making at home. Even if you tried, you'd never use as much butter as the kitchen does, so it wouldn't taste nearly as good.
Steakhouses tuck you into oversized booths and encourage you to stay awhile. They want to spoil you. For a few hours, you're royalty, sitting in a hot-tub-sized booth with a thick-cut steak, a martini, a pile of rich sides, and a tiny salad that lets everyone pretend the meal is balanced.
Some lean into a theme, like The Derby in Arcadia, a 104-year-old tribute to the nearby racetrack, or the tiki hideaway in Glendale where, for a brief moment, you forget you're in Glendale at all. Others strip the experience down and reinvent what a steakhouse can be. These are the 17 that do it best in Los Angeles right now, ranked from the timeless classics to the restaurants pushing the tradition somewhere new.
Steakhouses are back, baby. Here is how they are ranked in Los Angeles.